Moon of Silver
by TheGreatChickenbone
Summary: It is going to take a lot for the world to recover from the damage done and trust vampires again. Now Sookie has to deal with the world that is erupting around her and the part of her own world that was now missing with Bill. Does that make it a good time for Eric to step in permanently or is there going to be more to get in the way? Post season five. No Bill hate here, please.
1. prologue

This fic follows True Blood up to the end of season five and starting here on after I will be adding things from the books, like certain characters and a few bits and pieces of the story line from there. It's what the show originally intended to do after all.~ You don't have to have knowledge of the books for this fic.

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Moon of Silver

Prologue

The world would go on. It had to. This wasn't the first disaster to happen and it sure wasn't the last. Not if people continued to hold so much hate in them. Definitely not if people, or vampires for that matter, were going to let religion destroy them. There was already a high violence rate among those who disliked vampires being among humans. The damage was ten fold now after the True Blood factory bombings.

Yet, behold the world was not completely damned. It seemed that other companies were trying their hand at a forever-selling product like synthetic blood. It was very similar to what happened with Coca-Cola. Sub-markets grew to try to surpass the original for the money. After the bombings these companies came out to try to push their own product while they didn't have the bigger one in the way.

It seemed the damage the Authority had done brought a lot of new things to light for the humans as well. When what seemed to be Steve Newlin turned into some woman on live TV it was only natural for shifters to make themselves known. Though they had pushed very strongly that turning into other humans was not something they could do naturally and that it had very high risk if any shifter did manage to do it. It was important for humans to know this to cause less trouble. They had gained better acceptance than the vampires ever managed even.

The world was a mess, but it was nowhere near as rocky as right after the disaster. Things were settling and becoming easier to deal with for both humans and vampires. In between the two it probably would never be the se again on a personal level though. Vampires did good by seeking out the new brand of synthetic blood at least.

OoOoOoOoO

Sookie was surprised when Eric showed up at her home._ The place she lived that Eric apparently owned now._ That was the only reason he managed to sneak up on her and causing her to jump up from where she had sat on the couch.

"Why so startled?" There was the all too familiar smirk on his face as he asked before he entered the room completely.

"You were the last person I was expecting to see," though it was far from true and she actually had wanted him there for once. After what had happened with Bill and they realized he wasn't coming after them Eric had kept his distance. He did it for Sookie, not himself. He knew she preferred to recover from the emotional things on her own. She had to grieve and get it over. Literally. She had seen Bill seemingly die and in her eyes that's exactly what had happened. He was dead to her. Deader than he had ever been.

Silently, she went into the kitchen to heat up a bottle of blood from the fridge. Though Eric and Bill both had practically been out of her life for the past year Jessica was still around. Sometimes Jessica needed someone around more sane than Pam and Tara, Sookie fit that better than anyone. Of course there's blood in the house then.

She brought the bottle into the living room and handed it over to Eric. He didn't even bother to hide the disapproval, but he knew it was only in Sookie's nature to try and be a good hostess and was being polite by getting it.

"This taste like shit. I'm so glad I'm not living off of it anymore."

"It's all I can afford. The price of True Blood is outrageous since it is imported," one factory that got up and running wasn't cutting it. Still, True Blood did get sold despite the prices. The vampires with all the money from their long lives of investing like Eric did wouldn't be caught with Red Stuff. It was mostly bought by baby vampires now. Business had been booming for Red Stuff until the past two months when Japan resurrected the True Blood factory. True Blood was still having a hard time financially and getting the product going again, but it still managed to build on what was lost. The United States was next in line for a new factory. Needless to say over seas products were way too expensive for a waitress. Jessica hadn't complained much and never bothered to buy her own True Blood. She was also in the same boat with the money situation as Sookie. Bill didn't bother to leave her anything. He wasn't exactly to kind about her leaving him and his beliefs.

This was exactly why Red Stuff was the only thing in the house for a vampire, besides Sookie herself. She knew that thought had crossed Eric's mind when he gave her a side-ways glance as he finished the bottle off. Instead he places the bottle on the coffee table and sat down on the couch, "I haven't heard much from you."

"What would you care to hear?" She tried to keep the bite of her words out of her voice, but she couldn't say she wasn't at least a little upset that it took them this long to sit down and talk more.

"That you are alive and well to start with."

"Here I am. Alive. Better than I was..." she sat down next to him and glanced  
up to let her eyes meet his.

He showed concern, she at least could tell that if nothing else about him at the moment. "You know that. I'm sure you've been secretly checking up on me. I also know there is a reason for you being here other than to let me know you are still around."

"Don't you know so much."

Sookie frowned back at Eric as he laughed about the reaction. As much as he did want to do more than 'secretly check up' on Sookie he did have other reasons for being there at her house.

"Have you been watching the news?"

He didn't care much for it, but it was useful, especially when left in charge with what he had dealt with when not checking up on his former lover.

"When I care to," which wasn't much anymore since -

"Following the Church of Lilith?"

Since that.

"No," definitely not that. Sookie couldn't stand to hear about the rising vampire church. At least the followers have stopped forcing other vampires to feed on humans and they are not creating as much chaos as before. They were certainly along the same lines as The Fellowship of the Sun now, "I say let the Fellowship and those psycho vamps take care of each other and stay out of it."

"That's what the new vampire council thinks to do. We are trying to make peace. Not that fanatics understand the word."

"Are you the new vampire king of Louisiana then?" For all Sookie knew Eric had always been the most powerful sheriff so why not put him on charge?

"I don't wish to. Too much work, but if that's what the council decides I will take the role. I am acting it now until the summit."

"Summit?"

"It's... like a convention. Happens every year. This year it will be a bit different for obvious reasons.

"We are going to discuss what vampires are going to do about this Lilith mess. Things of that nature. Then there's something like a party..."

"That's why you are here?" Nothing about the vampire world should surprise her anymore, but it was.

"Yes. I want you to come with me."

There it was. The real reason he was there. Sookie knew this request wasn't for a date or anything close to it. Eric wanted a favor. Eric always looking out for Eric first. Chances were that Sookie wouldn't even know what the real reason for the favor would be until they were already in too deep.

"Why don't you just get Nora to go? You know, your _sister_?"

"Are you jealous?" It was very clear that Eric enjoyed that fact. He knew Sookie was jealous just by the way she had asked the question.

Sookie was trying to reason otherwise with herself. She was upset just by the fact she was now alone. It had been that way for so long, so why did Bill have to go and change that? She was wondering of the worst part about the over all fact was that she was wondering why Eric wasn't making her feel any less alone.

"And I am going to a _vampire_ summit for what?" While it sounded interesting she had about all she could handle with bad things happening. What of something went wrong! Then again these were the 'good' vampires. The ones not associated with Lilith. _Or Bill._ "No Lilith?"

"There will be someone to represent them. They have a slight say in what happens."

"Who?" The worst part about the new vampire church was the fact they had their wonderful 'spokes person' which just happened to be Bill Compton. Bill had such a way with words that there were even idiotic humans who would give themselves up for sacrifice.

_Manipulative bastard._

"There will be other humans too if that eases the fact that it's for vampires," Eric added to bring Sookie out of her own thoughts and deliberately ignoring the question.

"Yeah, fangbangers," she wasn't even focused on that problem anymore. What if it was Bill there? What if she did see him? She went so long forcing herself to think of him as nothing, but she did love him and she did know he wasn't himself. That wasn't him. It couldn't have been. Even Eric was set on saving Bill, surely he would know there was something wrong.

Sookie had to wonder of Eric only seemed to have given up to help this new vampire council or Louisiana. That did come first over one vampire, didn't it? He had to save many verses one.

"We should talk about this later. We have time," it was like Sookie had just froze up in her own thoughts. Eric knew she wasn't going to pay attention now that she seemed more concerned about rather or not Bill was around while she was. Though what was the difference in them being in a big place with hundreds over others verses him living right next door; or at least as close as next door gets out there?

Eric stood before Sookie realized he had actually spoken. She reached her hand out to grab his. While she didn't want him to leave her she knew it wasn't right. It was wrong of her to have pushed both him and Bill away and then expect Eric to be right there when things went wrong. Then there was Nora; Sookie wasn't even sure what was going on there.

"Sookie?"

"Later is fine," she let go of his hand and nodded. "I work tomorrow, but you can come by after."

"I'll be here."


	2. Chapter 1

Thank you everyone for all the favs, reviews and watches I got for this. It makes me happy to see that people are interested in what I have going here. I know there are a lot of questions, but they will surely get answered as we go.

One thing I think it would be important to add here is I feel like I'm basing Sookie off of the books a lot more than the show. I'm trying not to do that too much since this is meant to be a continuation from season five, but let's face it... I like the combination of the two. I hope that doesn't become a problem too much for others while reading this.

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Merlotte's was busy. It was even more so than most Friday nights. Sookie wasn't necessarily at her breaking point then, but she wasn't enjoying the night one bit. Her thoughts had already been a jumbled mess and now she had others weighing down on top. That night couldn't have been so bad though because it definitely made her wonder how she had gotten by the past year she had been back to work. Things have gotten easier, of course, this didn't even compare to the first month she was there after the incident at the Authority's headquarters.

That month had been dreadful along with all the sore spots certain subjects pressed on her for a while after. She had went on with working then too though. She needed the money and needed out of her house. She had it all taken care of, even if she had to do it with balancing trays on shaky hands and a tight smile she had to force out for the patrons of the bar.

For a while she had questions from some of those who didn't plan to nicely in what to say first. 'Did she know that the vampires she was so fond of were planning a massive take over?' 'How did she not know that Bill was insane?' She hated every word spoken and the even worse ones that were thought in other heads. At least she was usually good at keeping her mind shut off from thinking on what they said, but when she got too tired and allowed her own thoughts to burden her then the thoughts of others were very loud and clear. The thing she hated most was what everyone thought of Bill or the idea of him at all.

She had loved him. A part of her nagged to let her know she still does love him. While Eric had been a part of her too, there were still things about Bill that Sookie held dear. He was still the first. No girl was really capable of getting over something like that.

She shut her eyes tight as she felt a wave of hurt. She had to get over it. She couldn't stay moping in the lady's room forever. Shaking herself did the trick for the most part. There were things to look forward to. Eric. Was she allowed to look forward to seeing him? She wanted to so badly, but there was always issues with allowing herself anything with Eric. She wasn't sure what the hell Nora even was to him, except a sister, and she felt guilty for not choosing between him and Bill.

She made Eric wait and now she had to make her bed and lie in it too. _Alone._

As soon as she exited the restroom there was Sam. He looked worried about her. It was a look she had often gotten from her boss and even more so now than ever. Sam had been there too. He knew what had happened from sight. He didn't exactly see Bill rise up out of the bloody mess, but he knew enough. At least she could share the pain of what happened that night with others. They didn't feel the same for Bill, but they had all witnessed a change in the world.

Fate had to have its own laughs at the expense of others.

"You doing alright, Sookie?"

"I'm fine. I'll make the night, I promise," she nodded her head to try and make him convinced she was going to be. It was more genuine than the one she used for everybody else that night at least.

Sam patted her shoulder gently in a comforting manner, "let me know if you need anything. I'm worried about you, Sookie."

"I know Sam. I'll talk to you when my shift is over, okay?"

They parted to separate ways as Sookie headed back out to the customers. She felt the weight go lighter just by the small comfort Sam gave her. He had always had truth in his concern for her and he was one of the few she could allow herself to trust. Sam always loved easily, but she knew that no one could really replace the feelings for her. She felt very guilty about that, but she couldn't let that murk her judgment about staying at a friendly distance from him.

The rest of the night at work went by uneventful and Sookie was perfectly okay with that. She didn't need too much pity from customers so she put on a good enough smile. She made it until she ended up in Sam's office for the talk she promised him.

"What's going on with you? You were doing so good."_ Ouch._Sam really had to say it like that, didn't he? He had done good too. They both had a hard time before, Sookie wouldn't forget that. Sam had been pretty pitiful at first. Sure, he came out with the person he cared for at least.

With what he said she felt like a child being scolded, "I am going to need more time off." She hated asking that. She sounded like she was demanding it now with her temper. "I don't know when yet." She had made up her mind that she needed to go on the spot. She knew with a bunch of vampires around she could do her best to get rid of another problem she had. Warlow.

"You have barely asked for time off at all, you had one vacation since you've been here. I don't mind. Take time off. I hate the idea of you doing it to get mixed up with vampires again..."

"I need to do this for me. I have to know-"

"You're not going to Bill are you? Stay away from him, Sookie." By this point Sam was no longer sitting in his chair that was in front of his computer desk. Now he was standing right in front of Sookie.

"I can't promise anything, but it's not for Bill," though it did spike something in her to do. "Chances are he wont even be there. I need to go. I promised to meet Eric." And to cut the conversation off.

"Be careful."

_No point in lying,_she waved and walked out quickly. She had never made it out of the Merlotte's and to her car so fast before. She wasn't confident in Eric telling her everything was fine and dandy, but she wanted to get to her house and to that odd feeling of comfort soon.

Eric was all she could trust now and she was hoping that was a safe bet. There were doubts, many doubts. He could always just sell her out to save himself and she wondered if he would do that. If he still had that Eric in him that she had fallen for then he couldn't do that to her, right?

Sookie didn't rush her drive home. She had wanted out of the bar so bad, but then she hadn't allowed herself to worry about where Eric's loyalties lay. It was just another worry she had to throw out the window. She turned her radio up loud in hopes to drown her own thoughts out. The car ride to her house did prove to be a good breather for a moment. When she got back her worries escalated again though.

She didn't see any signs of Eric being there yet. She wasn't exactly on time either. A deep breath and she was out of her car. It wasn't going to bother her. Nothing was going to bother her anymore. The night had been too much trouble already and she was making something out of nothing.

_Hell, probably making something out of nothing with the Warlow thing as well._ If only she could be one hundred percent certain on that one. If that were the case she wondered if she would even be dealing with vampires at all anymore. There was too many politics involved in the vampires and it seemed not a single one of them could escape the clutches of the leaders. Back when she met Bill she had no idea this was what she was getting into. Sookie didn't plan on being a vampire hater or whatever Jason had turned into, but she sure wasn't willing to allow herself to be strung along by them anymore.

An hour later from getting home and Sookie was showered and sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee. It was probably the wrong thing to do since she should have been in bed, but that was just one of the problems with being close to vampires like she was.

When Eric finally did arrive she found herself borderline angry with him. She would definitely tell him to leave if she could have. "I'm really starting to have mixed feelings about doing this at all now."

"There were important things I had to do. They came up last-minute. I'm here now."

"Finally," she was curious about what Eric had done and wondered it had anything to do with more of those stupid vampire politics, but she knew she wouldn't get a straight answer out of Eric if she asked. Then there was the possibility that if he did answer she wouldn't like what she would hear.

"I'm not sure how I feel about getting involved any deeper in these vampire things, but I think it would be best to come." She wanted answers. She wondered of she would ever truly get an honest one of why she had been promised to a vampire. That didn't mean she wasn't going to find out as much as she could though.

"I think it would be best if you did as well. For me at least. I'm not sure if you'll find what you are looking for, but I am doing my best to protect you.

"No matter how much you don't want to be involved anymore, you will be. There will be those who have heard of you and will try their best to get you for themselves." Eric looked sincere about this. It was easy for him to seem truly worried when he wanted something for himself though. A perfect liar, but if that something was Sookie then perhaps he did care enough. There was no telling what else he could want from her. So far he had not asked her again to use her abilities for his own personal gain.

"You want to convince me that you are the better of _all_ the evils?"

While there wasn't an answer to her question he did not bother to look away from her to hide anything. Just how much could he hid in those eyes?

"You had told be me once that you loved me." And he had said the same for her. While things have changed greatly between them that did not mean his feelings swayed far. Sookie on the other hand was very complicated. He did not understand her one bit.

She was taken aback. That wasn't something she had expected him to bring up. She didn't really want him to say anything about that. There was a lot of anger, a lot or sadness, in her for what had happened with her previous love. "I did."

Much like Eric had sensed the mood, he let his point drop. It left Sookie crossed in wanting to continue it. She wanted to know he loved her still. She wanted all the things she knew were wrong to ask of him.

"You have two weeks. I'll come get you and we can travel together."

"Where is this thing exactly?" Best to know where one is going if they are walking into danger.

"New Orléans."

Then it was just a few hours drive. She could handle that, though perhaps not as amusing as her last plane trip had been.

It was quiet for a long moment before Eric sat down next to her and she realized she hadn't even offered him any synthetic blood or anything, which she usually did when she had vampire guest. It didn't seem like he had minded though and that was the last thing he was thinking of, she was sure.

"Let me stay here for the rest of the night and during the day?"

"I'm surprised you would even ask instead of just doing so," she nodded though. She knew it would probably be easier for him, but because of the fact he had come so late. It was only a few hours until dawn and she could tell he was already growing tired.

As old as Eric was he did not normally have the need to rest as long as other vampires, but everything he was dealing with now politically seemed to be wearing him down.

"I don't want you to be uncomfortable about me being here."

"I'm not..." _as long as it was not in her bed of course or her in his._ She almost spoke that as well until he placed his hand gently on her cheek. That wasn't so reassuring to what her brain was telling her to not do.

"Goodnight, Sookie," then he stood and left to his special place he had put in to sleep while Sookie was in the fairy world.

She doubted he was going to sleep well now.


End file.
